No Lover, No Problem

Within The Martian, the charismatic protagonist does not mention having a lover back home on Earth, and it is a good thing that he didn’t. Say he had a wife or girlfriend, it would have led to a constant feeling of turmoil which would have affected his positive attitude and his psyche as a whole. Instead of being the life of the party, so to speak, he would have pestered everyone on the crew to contact his wife/girlfriend. From my personal experience, it is not fun worrying about or missing somebody that you love. My situation is missing my parents at home a measly forty minutes away compared to Mark’s situation of being stranded on Mars 54.6 million kilometers from Earth. As a result of his single lifestyle, it actually benefitted him; he was already used to being alone on Earth for a majority of the day, so he didn’t have a huge shock when he woke up isolated on this foreign planet. His isolation has led to him to be extremely resourceful and gave him the ability of maintaining a positive outlook on life even when the future looked rather bleak. The life of an astronaut seems like a lonely one, and the crew (including Mark) knew what they signed up for. Let’s be honest here, anyone in love, especially men, will act irrationally when trying to get back home. That’s not a dig on women and how they love, I’m just saying that men seem to do the first thing that comes to mind without taking into consideration the consequences at hand. Again, Mark was winning in that aspect. Mark had his full wits about him and was able to think clearly and on the tasks at hand. All in all, love is a hindrance to those needing to survive. Why should he waste his time on something silly like this? He’s a freaking botanist (!) and the world is his oyster.